1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to animated cake decorations. More particularly, the invention concerns a novel cake decoration that simulates a face and has moving eyes and a moving mouth. Additionally, the apparatus includes a battery powered sound generator that can play a number of different songs and greetings. The apparatus is adapted to be partially embedded in the center of celebration cakes of various kinds as, for example, birthday, anniversary and graduation cakes.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is common practice to use cakes to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, Halloween and like events. Typically, such cakes are decorated with candles and with words and symbols applicable to the occasion, such as “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Anniversary”. Often, following lighting of the candles, songs are also sung to further celebrate the occasion.
Providing animated, mechanically operated decorations for use in connection with cakes is not new. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,872 issued to Herber discloses a pop-up device that may be placed in a hollow section of a cake, which is later iced over so that the candle holder is not visible. In the preferred embodiment, the base of the device supports the pop-up mechanism within a housing. The device is held in a compressed state by a release mechanism. Upon triggering of the release mechanism, the device is released and pushed through the cake or other confection, thereby providing surprise and entertainment.
It is also not new to provide animated cake decorations that play music. By a way of example, United States Patent to Valentino No. 5,673,802 describes a rotatable holder for a candle on a cake. Within the housing of the device is a small, battery powered D.C. motor connected through reduction gearing to a shaft, and audio may be provided so that when rotating the shaft an appropriate melody can be played. The holder is fixedly secured to the cake by means of a plurality of prongs.
A drawback of many of the prior art cake decorations is that they tend to be quite complex in construction and, therefore, often quite expensive to manufacture. Additionally, such prior art devices tend to be unreliable in use and frequently can be used only for one occasion.
It is these drawbacks that the device of the present invention seeks to overcome by providing a unique cake decoration that is relatively simple in construction, can be inexpensively manufactured and that can be used over and over for various types of celebrations.